Patagonia Expedition Race
TURISMO ROCKFORD RUNNER pushes hard to knock leaders out.
Jacqueline Windh / 27.06.2006
It was another late start to racing, with teams on the course just before 11am, for their longest day yet: 30 km bike, 20 km kayak, and 7 km trek. Finishing Day 5, AL AIRE LIBRE/URUGUAY was leading overall, with a 38 minute advantage over ROCKFORD.On this final day, ROCKFORD took the lead right from the start. URUGUAY have typically started each day in second or third place, but finished strong either at or near the front of the pack. However, by the end of the day’s kayak section ROCKFORD was still leading, with GNC second, and URUGUAY a full 26 minutes behind the leaders.
Apparently Ruben and Verónica felt the pressure. While other teams paused at the transition for ten or even twenty minutes, changing into dry clothes, warming up by the fire, and accepting the hot soup and coffeee offered there, URUGUAY paused only for moments. They chose to travel light, with minimal gear, wearing trail shoes rather than boots. They didn’t eat at the transition and didn’t take any food with them. These decisions cost them the race... and could have cost them a lot more.
The trek, through soft snow and through iced-over peat bogs, was slow and difficult going, and the distance of the route was significantly longer than the 7-8 km that they had been told. (Five teams that I asked estimated it at more like 15 km - the straight-line distance on the map is 10 km).
I’ll provide a full report within the next 24 hours or so, but the final result was that team URUGUAY became colder and colder, and slower and slower. They took about six hours to complete the trek, finishing after all of the other teams but one (the fastest team took less than 4 hours). When they arrived in to camp, Verónica’s feet were frozen into her shoes. It looked as if she was wearing big blocks of ice. Ruben was also very cold with partially frozen feet. People worked together for a good half hour trying to remove Verónica’s shoes: chipping at the ice, cutting, and trying to melt the ice off, before she was taken to a nearby roadworks base.
We travelled back to Punta Arenas today (the day after this last race day). Verónica has severe frostbite, with blisters the size of plums over the tops of her feet, and very swollen toes and fingers. Although one toe is turning black, we are told that she won’t lose any of her toes. Ruben, as well LuÃs Covarrubias of ARMADA DE CHILE (the one other team that wore shoes rather than boots) also have frostbitten feet.
Final rankings and times are as follows:
1. TURISMO ROCKFORD RUNNER 29:27:18
***time includes penalties, 1 hr for not providing assistance to an injured photographer and 30 min for not using studded tires on one bike segment
2. GNC 29:42:23
3. LIDER-AL AIRE LIBRE/URUGUAY 30:42:05
***time includes penalties, 1 hr for swearing at PC staff and 1 hr for not carrying/using appropriate required equipment on final trek
4. TU TRAVESIA INDOMITA 32:13:53
5. ARMADA DE CHILE 32:28:18
6. QUETRO 33:51:15
***time includes 1 hr penalty for not carrying required equipment on one kayak segment
7. INACAP 36:33:04
8. SOIJEN (did not do final trek)See All Event Posts
